Doyle goes off the boil

Kevin Doyle couldn’t wait to get back home to Reading on Saturday after a fortnight living out of a suitcase.

The Republic of Ireland striker spent the last two weeks in Europe with his national team as they played Georgia in Germany and then Montenegro in their qualification campaign for the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

Although Doyle admitted his own performance may have been affected by the international games, he refused to believe that it was the only reason for Royals’ disappointing 2-0 defeat at Portman Road.

Nonetheless, Reading’s record of games immediately following international games speaks for itself, as they have continually struggled to readapt to league life following the two-week breaks.

Doyle said: “I think it was only me and Hunty that played the two games, so you can blame that (Saturday’s performance) on all of us.

“There was a lot of lads away, and every time we have an international break we seem to struggle.

“We came straight from Montenegro to Ipswich and I’ve been sleeping in hotels for 14 nights now so I’m just looking forward to getting back.”

Doyle gave his usual 100-per-cent effort, but failed to make an impact against Ipswich, and his only real chance of the game arrived in stoppage time when he totally misjudged a Bobby Convey cross, allowing the ball to fall to Jimmy Kebe, whose low shot was cleared off the line.

Doyle will be hoping, though, for better service when Reading play Sheffield Wednesday at home tomorrow night (8pm kick-off).

Like so often last season, Doyle was left to feed off scraps against Ipswich as Royals insisted on playing the long ball far too often.

Royals have now picked up just 11 points from the last 66 available on their travels.

And Doyle said: “(The problem) was the end product. All of us, the whole 11, seemed to be half a yard off the pace. In the first few minutes of the game we had half chances and Jimmy had a chance through on goal, but after that we went out of the game.

“(The away form) will be a concern if it lasts for the whole season, but we got a draw at Nottingham Forest, but today was the same as the Charlton game – we started all right and then went out of it.

“It could be a good thing or a bad thing having a game tomorrow, but we need to get it out of our system.”

* Reading reserves were due to take on QPR at Loftus Road today (2pm kick off).

* Reading Under-18s were beaten 4-3 by Chelsea in a highly-entertaining Academy League game at Cobham on Saturday.

They took an early lead through Kelvin Bossman, but Fabio Borini quickly equalised for the young Blues, who then went ahead with a goal from Jordan Tabor.

Skipper Clovis Kamdjo levelled the scores for Royals, but then goals from Borini and substitute Marko Mitrovic made it 4-2 to Chelsea at half-time.

Reading tightened up their defence in the second half and deservedly pulled a goal back through substitute Jacob Walcott.

Reading under-16s lost 3-2 to their Chelsea counterparts, their goals coming from Lawson De’Ath and Frankie Raymond.